The Memorandum on Introduction of Methodology of Budget for Citizens signed

Events and Press Releases 02nd August 2016

Dragan Ćuzulan, public administration reform coordinator and Zdravko Miovčić, director of the Enterprise Development Agency Eda from Banja Luke, signed today in Sarajevo the Memorandum on Introduction of Methodology of Budget for Citizens.

The basic objective of the Memorandum is defining mutual cooperation on preparation and presentation of the annual budget of the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office in the form of the budget for citizens, as a representative and incentive example for other institutions at the state level. In BiH, direct participation of the citizens in budget drafting was not legally defined, thus draft of one such guide is not a legal obligation. By involvement in the international initiative Open Government Partnership, BiH obligated itself additionally to define concrete measures and actions in the fields of transparency, strengthening citizen participation in the governance and introduction of new technologies that make the public administration as efficient as possible.

“Only openness of the budget process and clear and understandable reporting on gathering and spending of the public funds may ensure involvement of active citizens in budget processes and increase of public trust in the authority bodies. Open budget protects from overspending, fraud and misuse. “, Ćuzulan pointed out. He added that the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office made all the budget documents available to the public through the web page. However, he stressed that the documents presented complex budget data that are difficult to understand for the wider public due to their complexity and use of technical terms from this field.

The director of the Eda stressed the satisfaction with continuation of cooperation with the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office, and he pointed out that Eda had the experience in drafting methodology for introduction of budget for citizens in several local communities.

“I believe that this way we would approximate to the public in which way the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office plans and spends the funds from the budget of the institutions of BiH. It is my satisfaction that the PARCO, who has the competency to coordinate public administration reform, would be the first institution at the state level that demonstrated the interest for draft of this document”, said Miovčić. Eda offered draft of the methodology and guide for the citizens through the budget of the institutions of BiH also to the Ministry of Finance of BiH, and the feedbeck information is pending.

The guide through the budget of the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office will be available to the public by the end of April next year, as stipulated by the Memorandum. Draft of the methodology and the budget for the citizens is financed by the Open Society Fund of BiH.